


In another life

by crisbarakart



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura deserved better, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Fix-It, Gay Keith (Voltron), I Will Go Down With This Ship, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance deserved better, M/M, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Post-Canon Fix-It, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), adam deserved better, everyone deserved better really, fuck it i'll do it myself, fuck voltron, i hated s8 so much so i did this, klance are soulmates no matter what, klance canon king forever, klance should've been canon, might not be the best i've written but i need to get this out there, no shitting on allurance but that was so badly developed, post season 8 fix-it fic, they'll live on, this was sort of therapy for me after that mess of a season, what should've happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 04:58:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17016177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crisbarakart/pseuds/crisbarakart
Summary: But Shiro’s words came rushing to him, like a sudden summer rain, sometimes what we want isn’t necessarily what we need. And Lance turned to look at Keith, still focused in the way the sun slowly but surely faded into the darkness of the night. He took in all of his sharp features, in the way his lips were slightly curbed into a pleased smile, his pretty eyes. Lance allowed himself to drown in Keith, to recognize his beauty. Maybe, he thought, in that moment of silent comfortableness, he had been running from that to chase after the wrong person. Maybe Keith was what Lance needed./post-season 8 fix-it fic/





	In another life

**Author's Note:**

> !! will surely contain some spoilers of season 8 so don't read if you don't want spoilers !! (i don't recommend watching that bullshit tho) 
> 
> the title is painfully inspired by the one that got away by katy perry the legitimate klangst song if you ask me.
> 
> after watching a bunch of klance videos and crying and shitting on voltron with my friends a bit more i decided to direct my frustration into something better and did this. as my friends and i were recovering from the fuckery that s8 was, we begun thinking about what could've been, how cute it would've been if the allurance scenes had been klance instead, and how maybe if lance had spoken with shiro instead of hunk things would've been different (which, btw, we were promised a conversation between these two that never happened thanks a lot again voltron) 
> 
> so i did this, fuck you voltron :)
> 
> i hope you enjoy it and that it helps you heal as much as it did writing this to me.
> 
> they did lance (and allura) so dirty and, as a bisexual myself, it hurts me so much that not only they destroyed klance like that, but that they reduced allurance into love interests and killed off bisexual lance. fuck off, lance will forever be a bisexual icon to me. (also, lance was so ooc in this season wtf????)

_"in another life, i would be your girl / we’d keep all our promises, be us against the world / in another life, i would make you stay / so i don’t have to say you were the one that got away."_

\- **katy perry, _the one that got away_**

**...**

 

Lance felt so stupid. He wanted to ask Allura out, but he simply couldn’t find the guts to do it. It seemed as if something was pulling him back, a feeling in his stomach, a whisper in the back of his mind; something didn’t feel right. Something was telling him he’d regret it.

But he was just being stupid, right? How could this not be right, when it had taken so much to get to this point, for Allura to finally notice him? He had liked Allura for so long, these feelings had to be real and strong enough to get them somewhere.

Right?

He tried to talk about this with Hunk. He tried, but Hunk was too excited about Lance finally going for Allura and Lance was just such a big mess he didn’t even know how to talk it out with Hunk. It was all so confusing, a tangle of emotions and doubts too hard to decipher, to entangle into cohesive thoughts.

Hunk told him to get it together and ask Allura out after the final meeting.

He sighed, after sitting in a meeting where he hadn’t heard half of it –he maybe remembered a few things Keith had said at some point of it–, because his thoughts had been clouding it all. Last minute doubts, everything’s okay.

He got up, going for Allura, who was walking away with Romelle. He chickened out once more, that feeling in his gut getting stronger, almost shouting at him and mixing up with his nerves. So he watched the two girls walk away and turned around, coming face-to-face with his best friend, Hunk staring at him with severity. And then, Shiro, a few steps behind, looking at them all with curious eyes, as if he had just been watching the situation unfold, like a third party, like an observer. Yet he had that smile, that _knowing_ smile slightly pulling at the corner of his mouth. It made Lance avoid the push Hunk was about to give him, a literal push that had Hunk stumbling ahead when his hands didn’t find a body to push, and slowly walked to Shiro.

Lance stood in front of Shiro, with the curious eyes of both his friends on him, not knowing what to ask, how to ask. Shiro knew, whatever there was to know there, Shiro knew the answer. Lance didn’t even know the question.

“Hey, Lance. How’d you doing?” Shiro said, smiling down at him, warm, caring, like the sort of big brother / temporal dad he had become to all of them for the time spent out in space. It was a dynamic that Lance had the feeling it would never leave them, no matter how much time went by. Shiro was reliable and caring.

Lance looked away for a second, hesitant.

“Can I… Can we talk?” He managed to ask. If he really was going to go to Shiro for this type of advice, he wanted to have that conversation somewhere more private, somewhere where, for once, he couldn’t feel Hunk’s eyes burning into his back.  

Shiro smiled down on him once more, warm, and then nodded. “Sure.”

They ended up in Shiro’s room.

Shiro walked across the room, taking off his jacket and leaving it on one of the sofas there.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

Lance bit his lip, staring at his feet, looking for the words, for something to at least begin with.

“I… I’m—.” He let out a frustrated breath.

God, how was this so hard? Why was he so confused? This was only a girl –admittedly, an alien princess, but still a girl– and Lance had dated girls before. Was what he felt for Allura not strong enough? Or maybe he was just nervous, maybe he just didn’t want to fuck that up because Allura was important to him, because she was so special Lance needed to make things right.

Shiro gave him that soft smile again, caring and understanding, not minding Lance’s doubt and struggle. But, at the same time, it was that knowing smile once more.  

“You’re not sure about Allura.” He provided.

Lance looked at him, surprised. Was he really that easy to read? Was the situation so obvious to see from outside? He probably looked like a big fat mess from outside. Someone who pretended to have everything under control, someone who acted as if he knew at all times who he was and what he was doing but, really, he was just a boy from Cuba; confused and insecure.

Lance slowly nodded, looking away from Shiro.

“I thought I wanted to be with her but… I don’t know, it’s like… it’s like this feeling in my stomach that tells me this is not right, for whatever reason it is.”

Lance knew he was being vague, that he was explaining himself awfully bad and barely making sense, even less to someone who didn’t know him as well as Hunk or Pidge did, but Shiro’s smile didn’t go away. He sat on the armrest of one of the sofas, arms crossed on his chest, and looked at the ceiling. He seemed to be thinking about the right way to word it all.

“Why do you like Allura?”

The question left Lance slightly disorientated, a question so easy and direct that it should have an answer just about as easy and direct. But Lance found it didn’t. Lance found himself thinking about it for a few seconds, considering it, looking for the right reasons, the perfect way to put it, before giving out an answer.

“I mean… She’s... She’s so strong, cares for all of us… She’s also very beautiful.”

“She is.” Shiro said, looking straight at him, his gaze piercing through the room, unfaltering. “But, what is she to you?”   

And that, right there, completely tore apart everything Lance thought he knew. Because, right, Allura was strong, caring and beautiful, but… But…

But she was never there _only_ for him, she was strong for all of them. She never looked at him differently –she never looked at him like she looked at Lotor. She never spent time alone with him. Did they even have any mission together, just the two of them? They never had heart-to-heart conversations. She never showed interest in him, not more than a friend would do.

Shiro got up, seeing the panic rapidly settling in Lance. His hand, the human one, came to rest on one of his shoulders. Lance looked up, coming to face the soft and warm look of Shiro’s eyes.

And then; “Sometimes what we want isn’t necessarily what we need.”

And Lance was left standing there, like a fish pulled harshly out of water, confusedly trying to process it all. Because maybe, maybe he didn’t _love_ Allura, maybe he just liked her, in the innocent way a teenager would have a crush on that cool girl in class, in the way that he wanted to stay by someone as strong and reliable as her. But maybe he wasn’t in love with her, maybe he was in love with the idea of her, maybe he had idealized it all too much.

“But what do I need?” He unconsciously questioned back, pulled by that same look in Shiro’s eyes that said he knew, that was so many steps ahead of Lance. And Lance needed to know, he was losing his mind over this, over the realization that maybe he’d been chasing after the wrong girl.  

Shiro’s smile grew bigger, as he rested his other hand on Lance’s other shoulder.

“Stop stressing so much, Lance. You’ll know. You need to listen to what that gut feeling of yours says, stop looking for pretty girls and focus more on yourself.” He smiled one last time, letting go and, as he turned around; “Maybe you’re focusing on the wrong _person_.”   

Lance left the room almost as confused as he entered it.

Wrong person? What did that even mean?

He walked down the corridors of the Garrison, deciding to go out for some air and try to calm down, get his mind to stop going on over-drive. It was fine, he was having a last dinner with his family that night and maybe that was all he really needed. He had missed Earth, had missed his family, dearly, and he wanted to make the most out of it before he left again; before it was too late. He didn’t need girls, he had his family, and they’d always have his back, no matter what.

He sighed, enjoying the way the Earth air filled his lungs, enjoying the relief of it, of not having to constantly have his helmet on to breathe. He let the air ruffle his hair, the last rays of sunlight kiss his skin softly, and he stared at the way the sun melted into the horizon. He noticed then the Black Lion, in the distance, right in the middle of the beautiful sunset view and on top of it… there was someone. Was that Keith?

He felt his heart pick up speed in his chest, with a sudden but welcoming warmth pooling in his stomach. He walked closer, just enough to be able to see him better, to pick up on his features with more clarity. From down there, Lance couldn’t really see him well, but he could see how his hair moved with the wind, the sun reflecting in his pale soft skin, his solemn expression. He looked ethereal. And it was weird, it had his stomach aching with unknown feelings, but it didn’t feel exactly wrong. 

He bit his lower lip, deciding to climb up there. Keith always knew what to say to make him feel better, he understood him, in a way that it sometimes felt no one else could.

“Oh, hey, Lance.” Keith greeted him, seeing him climb up onto the lion, warm welcoming smile.

“Hey, man. You’re really hard to find when you want to, huh?”

 Keith looked at him once more with an amused smile. “What, were you looking for me?”

Lance felt his heart beat on his chest, his cheeks getting warm under that look. He looked away.

“N-Not really.”

Keith hummed in response, and they just stared at the sunset in silence, next to each other. It wasn’t awkward, it was extremely comfortable. It felt like belonging somewhere, like being right at home. It confused Lance to no end, even more because it wasn’t a new foreign feeling, he had felt this warmness before with Keith. He had felt it with the bonding moment he so desperately tried to act as if it never happened, as if he never remembered it. He had felt it all of those times when Keith had comforted him and when he had comforted Keith, when Keith would look at him straight in the eyes and thank him for being there. He had felt it, painful and sore, when Keith’s absence become too obvious in the big Castle of Lions.

He had never given himself room to acknowledge those feelings, he had turned his back to them and run away, hidden away from them. He had treated them as if they were dangerous and poisonous. But Shiro’s words came rushing to him, like a sudden summer rain, _sometimes what we want isn’t necessarily what we need_. And Lance turned to look at Keith, still focused in the way the sun slowly but surely faded into the darkness of the night. He took in all of his sharp features, in the way his lips were slightly curbed into a pleased smile, his pretty eyes. Lance allowed himself to drown in Keith, to recognize his beauty. Maybe, he thought, in that moment of silent comfortableness, he had been running from that to chase after the wrong person. Maybe Keith was what Lance needed. Allura was undoubtedly beautiful and strong, but he wasn’t what Lance needed. Keith was what Lance needed, it was there, screaming right on his face in the way he always made sure to reassure him, keep him grounded and make sure he knew just how worthy he was. And Lance truly felt stupid this time, because it was all so obvious, written in bold everywhere, but he never saw it clearly, blurry letters he never minded reading.

“Are you… doing anything tonight?” Lance quietly asked, his gaze focused on the sunset, too embarrassed to look at Keith.

Keith seemed to consider it for a second. “Not really, I’ll probably just have dinner with my mom and Kolivan, you?”

So that was the decisive moment, Lance could chicken out like he had with Allura, or he could actually have the guts for once to face Keith and all of his feelings and ask him out. It was supposed to be easier this time, at least this felt right, he wasn’t doubting anymore. He was just scared of rejection, of how foreign it felt to do that with another boy.

“I’m… also having dinner with my family.” Keith hummed, seemly satisfied with the answer, and Lance closed his eyes, gathering strength for; “Do you wanna have dinner with us?”

There was a moment of silence, a pause. It had Lance waiting for an answer, as he slowly opened his eyes and looked at Keith to be met with a face of astonishment.

“Like… Like a date?”

Keith went red, realizing of what he had just said, he seemed ready to back-pedal, but Lance grew just as red as he whispered ‘yeah’. Silence, a bit less comfortable now and then;

“Okay.”

—

Keith was nervous. It had all been so sudden, Lance had completely taken him aback, he wasn’t expecting the guy to come to him and ask him out. He was sure Lance was going to ask Allura out, not him, he thought things were going pretty smooth between these two. But then, suddenly, there he was, Lance, stupidly beautiful and funny and precious to him, shyly asking _him_ out; and Keith would never be able to say no to him.

He stormed into Shiro’s room, who, on cue, turned to look at him. He gave him _this look_ , as if he was counting down the seconds to watch him enter the room, expecting him. It was weird, so weird. But Keith brushed it off, deciding to focus on more important matters instead.

“Something happened, and I need your help.”

Shiro smiled at him, leaving the reports or whatever paperwork he was reading aside. “I have a feeling it has something to do with Lance.”  

Keith, gay panic completely taking over him, nodded. It wasn’t, after all, the first time he came to Shiro to talk about Lance. Shiro knew, he had noticed a while ago, he was aware of Keith’s feelings for Lance. He never pressed it, never tried to stop him or push him to go ahead, he was there for Keith, whenever all of those unrequited feelings became too much. But now it seemed like maybe those feelings weren’t as one-sided as Keith thought, and maybe Keith was losing his mind a bit. 

“He asked me out on a date. Tonight.” He simply said, looking directly at Shiro with disbelief. “What. The. Actual. Fuck.”

Shiro laughed, softly, and patted the spot next to him on the sofa. Keith sat down, as he was told, waiting for Shiro’s answer.

Shiro paused for a few more seconds, looking ahead.

“He came here to talk with me. He was doubting about Allura, if that’s what worries you. I don’t think he likes Allura, not really.” Shiro chuckled and finally looked at him, shaking his head. “Well, he surely must not like her as much as we all thought if he finally came to the resolution that he likes you instead, if he went to ask _you_ out and not her, at the end.”

Keith didn’t know what to say. He was sure Lance wouldn’t like him back, ever, he was prepared to let it go. He was ready to watch him go, see him be happy with Allura. Keith thought that was enough, he just wanted to see Lance happy, to see him smile and shine so bright it was hard to look at. Keith was in love with Lance, he would do anything for him, even if it ended up being painful for Keith to stare at him from a distance, to look at what could’ve been and still smile, smile because Lance’s happiness was and would always be a priority to him.

“Come on, we need to find you something nice to wear. That’s what you came here for, right?” Shiro said, getting him out of his spiral of thoughts.

He smiled at him once more, a look full of happiness and proud, like a big brother would be. It warmed Keith up, it reassured him, because Shiro was always right, had helped him through so many tough moments of his life, and he knew he could trust him on this. Shiro always had his back.

Keith stood by the door to the McClain’s house. Nervous was an understatement by now. He checked his outfit once more, checked his hair again, trying not to mess up the intricate hairstyle Adam and Shiro had done to him, some sort of braid that came from the top of his head. Adam had insisted on how it would be such a waste to not make the most of how much Keith’s hair had grown over the years spent in outer space.

He bit his lower lip and sighed, finally knocking on the door.

The door opened and, going down the last few steps of the staircase, was Lance. Beautiful as he always was, with those pretty blue eyes and that golden sun-kissed skin. It was odd to see him wearing something different to uniforms and armors, or his casual usual clothes, and oh, god, maybe he was really gay panicking this time. Lance looked so good on that outfit, the blue looking as good as it always did on him, bringing out all of his features.

For a few seconds, they just stood there, staring at each other as if time had frozen up for them.

“Wow, you look… you look beautiful.” Lance said, soft, with a blush on his cheeks that made him look even more adorable. Keith thought he’d melt right into the carpet of the McClain’s household.    

“You too, you really know how to always look good.”

Lance smiled at him and slowly, hesitantly, took his hand to lead him inside. Keith couldn’t help but notice how his hand slightly trembled, and smiled, endeared at seeing Lance was nervous because of him, before giving Lance’s hand a small reassuring squeeze.

“I always thought Lance would bring a pretty girl home, but I’m not complaining, you’re also very handsome and it’s such an honor to have the leader of Voltron siting with us at dinner.” Lance’s mom said, smiling at Keith, once they were all siting at the table. Or tables, since one of Lance’s sisters was sitting at the kids table with the kids, since they all wouldn’t fit in just one table.

“Mama! You’re embarrassing me!” He complained, covering his face with his hands, yet Keith still saw the blush.

“Oh, if we’re talking about embarrassing you,” One of Lance’s brothers said, Luis, Keith thought he remembered it was his name. “remember that time when we were kids and Veronica mixed water with dirt and told Lance it was chocolate milk?”

Veronica, at the other side of the table, laughed. “Oh, yeah, I still can’t believe he fell for it!”

Keith laughed, enjoying the teasing of the siblings, a family dynamic he never really had but that felt so right and nice. He found himself wishing he could preserve it all, treasure it and never forget. He wished that wasn’t the last time he got to experience it, but the first one from many yet to come, because he intended to stay next to Lance for as long as he could.

“Sounds like Lance.” Keith said, because it seemed like the stupidly cute idiocy Lance would pull off, laughing too. “Back in space we also tricked him to eat all sorts of stuff.”

Lance pouted.

“Yeah well, at least papa bought me ice cream afterwards.” He complained. “And, as I recall, Keith, you were also one to eat weird stuff out there.”

Veronica laughed once more. “Oh yeah, Shiro told me Hunk liked to experiment on the Castle of Lions and he would always use you two as guinea pigs.”

They both huffed, Hunk had really made them try all sort of things while trying to find out which ingredients were cooking-appropriate, and which weren’t at all. Sometimes it just turned into a competition to see who would throw up first. Keith smiled softly, because even if those days had been hard, he still treasured them and sort of missed how unknowingly easier those times were. The McClain family just laughed at the two of them. 

“Man, Lance was always the baby of the family, it only took you to come for him to finally graduate from the kids’ table.” Marco said, teasing Lance and gaining a glare from Rachel, who had been sentenced to said table so that Keith and Lance could sit at the adult’s table.

As they all teased Lance, who answered back with annoyance –an annoyance that Keith knew so well, since he had pushed it to the surface more times that he could recall, in all the bickering that always accompanied Keith and Lance, neck and neck, like rivals– he couldn’t help but to picture it.

He still remembered when they had first come to Earth months ago, after being away from home for years, how Lance had run to his family. Lance was a family person, and Keith found himself falling even more in love with Lance. With that sweet side of him, so different from the tough and cool façade Lance always liked to put up, one that had been slowly falling down the more Keith got to know Lance, the closer they got, the more they trusted each other. And Keith imagined Lance, maybe back in Cuba, the place he so loved, siting at the kids table. He thought about him playing with the kids, being all goofy and joking around, having all the kids mesmerized by him and laughing cheerfully. Despite Lance being all defensive about being put on the kids’ table all the time, Keith could easily see Lance enjoying it.

He couldn’t really help it, his mind going there before Keith could pull back, stop, it’s too soon for that. He imagined just the two of them, a small house on a hill, maybe somewhere in Cuba, where the sun would warm up their skin, where Lance’s would shine golder than ever. Lance would be sitting at the table, with their kids, feeding them as he entertained them with silly games –maybe the classic of pretending the spoon was a plane– and Lance would be such a good dad that Keith wouldn’t be able to hold back his smile, as he prepared breakfast for the two of them.

He came back to the McClain’s dinner table with the sound of Lance’s family’s getting up to start tiding everything up, Lance slightly pulling at his sleeve to get his attention.

“Come on, I wanna take you somewhere.”

Keith didn’t even question him. How could he, when Lance was giving him one of those smiles that just melted his insides like a warm spring sun?

They ended up in a park, one that surely must’ve been way more beautiful before the war, before the galra burned it down to leaf-less dead trees. And Lance intertwined the fingers of their hands. And Keith’s heart picked up speed. And Lance’s cheeks were bright red, but he was looking right at him, with deep warm blue eyes.

“You know,” He started, without looking away, voice serious with a determination that made butterflies flutter in Keith’s stomach. “for a long time, I thought I loved Allura. She was pretty, strong. You know, a cool girl for the great Lance McClain to flirt with.”

Keith chuckled. “Yeah, right.”

Keith ignored the way his stomach dropped a bit at the mention of Allura, instead, waiting for Lance to go on, to see where he was taking that. Keith really liked the girl, she was, indeed, strong, and reliable. Allura had become like family to him and, even if she ended up taking Lance away from him, Keith didn’t think he would ever find it in him to resent her.

“Yep, so, as I said, I thought I loved her. But,” Lance paused, now looking away, to the park, to the dead trees and the stars above them. “I don’t think she’s what I really need. I think I need someone who gives me strength when I’m feeling weak and powerless, someone who’ll knock some sense into me when I feel like I don’t belong anywhere, someone who’d give me that sense of belonging.” Lance now turned to look back at him, shy but with an unfaltering look on his eyes. “I think I need _you_ , Keith. I think I love you. I think I’ve been running away from it for so long, trying to lie to myself, to hide and burry these feelings but… but, I’m in love with you, _mullet_.”

Keith laughed, a light feeling that shook his body, leaving him feeling weightless and warm all over. He laughed because Lance had the audacity to call him that stupid –but sort of cute, in a way– nickname even when he was saying he was in love with him. He laughed because that had to be a dream, it couldn’t be true that Lance loved him. He laughed because he felt happier than he’d felt in so long.

Lance blushed even harder, and pouted.

“Hey, don’t laugh, you idiot! I’m being completely honest right here and you’re making fu—.”

But Keith didn’t let him finish, because his hands grabbed Lance’s cheeks and he finally pressed his lips against Lance’s, like he’d wanted to for so long. And everything felt right, and okay, and the war didn’t matter, and nothing that wasn’t that moment and Lance and Keith didn’t matter in those moments. It was just them, Keith and Lance, kissing under the stars.

“I love you too.” He whispered, mere inches from his lips.

Lance smiled, and Keith did too, and they kissed again. And again, and again, and again. Because they loved each other, because they had waited for that for too long. Because nothing was certain with the life they were leading, but if one thing was, it was that they loved each other. And they would pull through, and they would end the war, together. Keith and Lance, red and blue, against the world.  

 


End file.
